Tag: Google Doodle

India is celebrating its 65th Independence Day (66th if you count 15th August 1947 as the first Independence) to mark its independence from the British rule. On this occasion, Google India is celebrating the Independence Day with a colorful doodle on its home page, which on mouse over will greet you with a message, “Indian Independence Day”.

The India Independence Day Google doodle features a peacock with a large colorful plume tail. The peacock in the doodle forms the letter ‘G’ of the Google logo, while the remaining letters of Google logo are seen designed in yellow ochre-blue color.

Google has been celebrating India Independence Day with a doodle on its home page every year since 2003, where most of the doodles featured the Indian national flag. However, the 2011 and 2012 doodles were quite different as Google created the doodles by featuring the Indian national symbols in place of the Tricolour. If you remember, the 2011 Google doodle was a sketch of Delhi’s Red Fort.

Independence Day, Republic Day on 26 January, and Mohandas Gandhi’s birthday on 2 October are the three important national holidays observed in all the states of India, including the union territories. A day before the Independence Day, the President of India delivers the “Address to the Nation”, which is televised across the country. On 15 August every year, the Prime Minister of India hoists the Indian flag on the ramparts of the historical site Red Fort in Delhi.

Along with India, three other countries celebrate their Independence Day on August 15 – Bahrain, South Korea and Republic of the Congo.

Day 15 of the Olympic Google Doodle is already here. Although the doodle will go live on Google’s home page after the clock strikes twelve, you can go ahead and play the next doodle here, and try your best with the scores.

Today’s London 2012 Day 15 Google Doodle is all about Football (Soccer). The latest Google doodle wants you to save some goals for your country, and more the number of goals you save, the better your points will be and the higher number of stars you will be awarded.

Google London 2012 Football Doodle features a goalkeeper in a blue shirt which lets you to save the goals as your opponent in the red shirt tries to score goals. The opponent has 5 footballs, and tries to shoot the balls one after the other.

London 2012 Google Football Doodle: How to Play?

Playing the football Google doodle is quite simple. All you need to do is click on the play button to start the game. You being the goalkeeper, the aim is to save as many goals as possible, as the player on the other end starts shooting the ball in random directions.

You can use the left and right arrow keys to move the goalkeeper in left and right directions respectively. Alternatively, you can control the keeper with your mouse, which is a lot easier than the arrow keys. To save a goal, you can press the space bar, or click the left mouse button, which will help you block the ball. However, if the ball is shot at ground level, simply block the ball by moving the player toward the ball’s direction.

For every goal saved, you will be awarded one point; however, for every goal that you’re unable to save, you get a “X” mark indicating that you’ve lost a chance. If you get three “X” on the top left counter, that’s the end of the game.

London 2012 Google Doodle: How to Get Three Stars?

To get three stars, try to block as many goals as possible. You get three stars if you save around 45 goals, or more. You will be awarded two stars if you save 10 or more goals and one star if the goals saved are below 10.

Note: After you’ve crossed 20 points, the opponent starts shooting the ball a little faster, making it harder and confusing to stop the goals.

This is the fourth interactive Olympic Google Doodle. If you missed the other three — Hurdles, Basketball, and Slalom Canoe Google Doodle Game, you can go here and play them.

As expected, we have another Google doodle today, and there’s no time to rest your fingers. Today, Google presents the London 2012 Slalom Canoe Game, also known as White-water slalom, where the main goal is to navigate a decked canoe through a course of hanging gates on river rapids in the best time possible.

Canoe Slalom made its debut at the Munich 1972 Olympic Games. However, it wasn’t considered a regular Olympic sport until Barcelona 1992. In this sport, the athletes negotiate a 250 metre white water course, flowing at a rate of 13 cubic metres per second, and dropping 5.5m from start to finish.

Over the last two days, Google has creatively come up with two interactive doodle, which were not only exciting to play, but has also provided users the best killer way to pass time. Google presented the first Olympic interactive doodle, which was based on the Hurdles race that certainly kept us hooked for quite some time. And last night, Google came up with the Basketball shooting hoops doodle.

The search engine giant continues to present its interactive and addictive doodles on its home page. In today’s London 2012 Slalom Canoe Google doodle game, all you need to do is navigate through the water channel, avoiding small hurdles in-between, and make it to the finish line in the best possible time.

How to play London 2012 Slalom Canoe Google Doodle Game?

Visit the Google homepage and click on the play button. When you’re all set to go, press the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard repeatedly to control the canoe as well as to increase the speed. You need to navigate the canoe through the hanging gates in order to fetch more points or stars. If you fail to pass through the gates, extra seconds are added to your final time as penalty.

Also, you need to avoid small hurdles that you come across, which not only slows down the canoe, but also damages it, with cracks appearing on it from the front. The goal — try completing the lap as fast as possible.

Yesterday’s Google Doodle was a massive hit. Many Internet users spent hours together to win three stars and get the best time in completing the 110-meter hurdles. Today, Google has added yet another interactive doodle on its homepage, and it looks like Google will be publishing more interactive doodles in the next few days.

Today’s doodle is a basketball game (shooting hoops), which is published in order to celebrate the upcoming men’s basketball quarterfinal games in the London Olympics 2012. This is the thirteenth doodle, and the second interactive doodle, posted by Google during the ongoing London 2012 Olympics.

How to Play the London 2012 Google Doodle Basketball Game

In the Basketball Google Doodle, you need to aim and shoot as many basketballs into the hoops as possible in under 24 seconds. The controls are quite simple. You need to use the space bar key to set the shot, and pressing it again will shoot the ball towards the basket. You can also make use of mouse buttons to click and shoot. For best results, give a break between each click, or if you’re using space bar, the longer you hold space bar the further he throws.

When you reach 8 points, you will notice that the player moves far from the basket. This happens again when you reach 18 points. As the player continues to move back and reaches the three-pointer position, every successful basket thereafter will be awarded three points.

This is currently the best way to waste your time. Make sure you don’t get caught while playing during office hours ;) Go ahead and try your best, and don’t forget to mention your score below.

Not everyone gets a chance to take a part in the Olympics, however, Google is giving Internet users a chance to take part in the 100-meter hurdles, but with a Google Doodle. All you need is a strong keyboard and fast moving legs fingers!

Today’s doodle is the best Olympic Google Doodle ever made. The London 2012 Hurdles doodle is an interactive doodle game in which you can take part in the 100-meter hurdles game, and try to cross the finish line in the best possible time, or beat the actual Olympic record of 12.21 seconds set by Donkova Yordanka from Bulgaria on 20 August, 1988.

However, if you’re male, you need to catch up with Robles Dayron of Czech Republic, and beat his 110-meter hurdles records set at 12.87 seconds.

How to Play the London 2012 Hurdles Google Doodle Game

The game rules are pretty easy. Like I said, you only need a strong keyboard and fast fingers. Once you click on the play button, you will need to use your left and right arrows to determine the speed at which the athlete is running. That is, start pressing the left, right arrows keys as fast as possible to make the athlete run faster. However, you need to be careful while jumping the hurdles. To jump, simply press the up arrow key or the space bar.

At the end, the doodle displays the total time taken to reach the finish line. If your score is well below 12.21 seconds, you will get three stars, which otherwise is considered as a Gold medal. If not, you will be awarded two stars (Silver) and three stars (Bronze) depending on your score.

With less than 24 hours left for the mega sporting event to kick start, Google has come up with a colorful doodle on the occasion of Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, officially called as the Games of the XXX Olympiad.

As usual, the Google logo is replaced with the new doodle on the search engine giant’s homepage marking the important sport event. The doodle features five athletes on the track holding the letters of the Google logo, with each featuring a respective game. The Olympic disciplines depicted on the doodle are football, swimming, running/jumping, javelin throw, fencing and basketball.

The 2012 Summer Olympic Games is the 30th modern Olympic Games and is scheduled to take off from 27 July, 2012 onwards to 12 August, 2012. There will be over 10,000 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) taking part in the 2012 London Olympics. The group stages in women’ football began on the 25th July.

On the heels of the announcement of space flight pioneer, Sally Ride’s death, another trailblazing woman, Amelia Earhart, is being honored on what would be her 115th birthday with a Google Doodle. Pictured below, you can see the image of her Lockheed Electra, which was the plane she was in on the fateful day of her crash at sea in the Central Pacific Ocean.

According to her official biography website, Earhart became fascinated with flying the day she went to watch a stunt flyer. Apparently, the pilot thought it might be fun to dive his plane toward Earhart and her friend, but instead of giving her a scare, he planted a seed.

I did not understand it at the time,” she said, “but I believe that little red airplane said something to me as it swished by. – Amelia Earhart

This tomboy turned pilot would eventually set record after record in the field of aviation and would challenge the conventional role of women in her day.

In 1932, at the age of 34, she would set out on a journey of a lifetime, being the first woman to do a solo transatlantic flight. The 14 hour flight began in Newfoundland and would end in a farm pasture in Northern Ireland. After this heroic journey, President Herbert Hoover presented Earhart with a gold medal from the National Geographic Society, Congress awarded her the Distinguished Flying Cross-the first ever given to a woman, and she also received the Cross of Knight of the Legion of Honor from the French government.

In 1937, Earhart wanted set out to make a flight around the world. She, along with her navigator Fred Noonan, nearly made it around. In fact, she was only 7000 miles shy of reaching her goal, but something went wrong on her way to one her stops on Howland Island. A mixture of bad weather, poor radio transmissions, and equipment failure eventually led to the U.S. Navy losing track of Earhart. According to her biography these were the last transmissions heard that fateful day:

“We must be on you, but we cannot see you. Fuel is running low. Been unable to reach you by radio. We are flying at 1,000 feet.” The ship tried to reply, but the plane seemed not to hear. At 8:45 Earhart reported, “We are running north and south.” Nothing further was heard from Earhart.

Since that day, Amelia Earhart has been the stuff of legends. Even today, several news outlets are reporting how the search goes on to find the remains of the wreckage. Millions of dollars have been spent, and many theories have been laid to out, but unfortunately, Amelia Earhart’s departure from this world is still a mystery. To this day Earhart’s spirit should be an inspiration for women to aspire to their dreams. Her last letter to her husband represents the kind of spirit she had when she writes:

“Please know I am quite aware of the hazards,” she said. “I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others.”

So today as we ponder the life and death of an amazing pioneer of aviation, the question becomes, “How will we honor her spirit and accept the challenge?”

Known for his erotic and highly decorative style of painting with the primary subject being the female body, the Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt was born 150 years ago today, and thanks to Google, a lot of people now know who he is.

On the occasion of Klimt’s 150th birth anniversary, Google has come up with a doodle that is dedicated to the artistic painter and has featured it on its home page by replacing the Google logo with the doodle. The doodle reflects one of Klimt’s most famous work – “The Kiss,” which he painted between the year 1907 and 1908.

The doodle has the letters “Google” in golden-yellow color placed in the background, while the painting “The Kiss” is placed over it.

Not many knew about the Austrian painter until Google put up the doodle, although he was referred to as an important artist and had gained worldwide recognition even beyond the art world during his time.

On this day, Austria will be celebrating Klimt’s birthday with special exhibitions in and around the city, including a few guided walking tours where people will be guided through some of the places and building where Klimt worked. Also, to coincide with the birth anniversary of Klimt, the Austrian Mint had begun a 5 coin gold series in 2012, and issued the first 50 Euro gold coin on January 25, 2012, featuring a portrait of Klimt.

Klimt’s painting stirred lot controversies during his time because of his celebration of sex and sexuality. However, today, Klimt’s works are among the world’s most expensive available, and “The Kiss,” featured in today’s doodle is his most famous painting. Klimt also made it into the headlines last year when one of his paintings was sold at an auction for nearly $40 million.

Born:July 14, 1862, Baumgarten, ViennaDied:February 6, 1918, Vienna

Education: University of Applied Arts Vienna (1876–1883)

Parents: Anna Klimt, Ernst Klimt the Elder

Children: Otto Zimmermann, Gustav Ucicky, Gustav Zimmermann

With all this, some Internet users had deliberately changed the Klimt’s Wikipedia page, in which the first line read as, “Google, the worst search engine, has made a link to Gustav Klimt…” However, this appears to be fixed as you can see the last modified timestamp at the bottom of the page.

Klimt died in Vienna on February 6, 1918 after contracting Spanish flu during the 1918 flu pandemic.

Today, Google commemorated Independence Day in the U.S. with a whimsical red, white, and blue doodle, pictured above. Inside the letters of the doodle are the lyrics to a famous American folk song “This Land is Your Land”. Written by American folk singer, Woody Guthrie, the song describes scenes of America. Though many people today may not realize the song was a bit of a protest by Guthrie at the time, as he was sympathetic to communist causes. Wikipedia has a nice article about the song and information about little known verses that we seldom hear of today. The link can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Land_Is_Your_Land.

Google also took the initiative to post a link at the bottom of their website. Notice in the picture above, a link is circled in red. If you click that link, you will see a plea from Google to support a free and open internet. The internet is truly one of the last frontiers of freedom and governments and corporations alike, are doing all they can to censor it, control it, and quell the freedom of ideas that spread across it. Is the internet perfect? Absolutely not! To me that is just a reflection of those who use the internet, humans. We are not perfect so why would the internet reflect otherwise. There are grumbling even in the U.S. government and legislation is being written that threatens greatly the freedom we have on the internet. Google would like you to take action at this link https://www.google.com/takeaction/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=hpp&utm_campaign=07042012takeactionhpp. They also have a flag that they have asked everyone to download with voices from history and today. It is free to download. Below is a video they posted as well.

Independence Day is a national holiday in the U.S. which celebrates the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Thirteen colonies lifted their voices and declared independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. It was a bold step for the fledgling country and one that is celebrated nationwide every July 4th. Our country is merely a baby when compared with the ages of nations that surround us. I think it would do all of us well to take note of the Declaration of Independence. Spend a few minutes of this day and read what was on the hearts and minds of people a couple of centuries ago. You can find the transcript at http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html. Happy 4th of July everyone! May it be a safe, joyful occasion, and may freedom ring in the hearts of everyone today.

Google today is celebrating the 100th birthday of Alan Turing, an English mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist by replacing its usual Google logo and honouring the great computer genius with an impressive Turing Machine Google doodle.

The Turing machine, as described by Alan Turing in 1936, is a device that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape following to a set of rules. The machine scans the strip of tape by looking at some specific cues, which would then alter the state of the machine. The device is used not only to process the logic of any computer algorithm, but is also particularly used to conceptualize and explain the behavior of a CPU inside a computer.

The Google doodle that is featured on Google’s home page replicates the Turing machine in a virtual manner. The virtual Turing machine challenges you to spell out Google in the binary code format. Head over to Google.com and see if you can solve the “puzzle” and get the combinations right.

The first five letters were quite easy to figure out, however, the last letter is far more difficult to get it right. After a lot of trial and error, I somehow managed to get its combinations correct in the sixth attempt. Each letter turns into its respective color (in logo), and at the end of it, the entire sequence is repeated from the beginning to end.

Alan Turing was born on June 23, 1912 in London, England. He is widely considered to be the father of computer science and artificial intelligence.

After the Second World War, Turing worked for the Government Code and Cypher School, where he created one of his first designs for a stored-program computer, the ACE. He then joined Max Newman’s Computing Laboratory at Manchester University where he showed interest in mathematical biology.

In the year 1952, Turing was accused for homosexuality as homosexual acts were still illegal in the United Kingdom back then. He was sentenced to a year of treatment with female hormones (chemical castration). Two years later, on June 7 1954, Turing died of cyanide poisoning.

For the punishment Turing had faced, the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologized publicly on behalf the British Government in the year 2009.

Along with the Google Doodle, Allan Turing, is also being honoured with an award named after him in Manchester for people who help victims of homophobia. Another award that is named after Alan Turing – The Turing Award, is considered to be the highest distinction in computer science and is also referred to as the Nobel Prize of computing.

In case you have some difficulties in solving the doodle, here’s a video with the solution: